Vibratory steam-engine



WILLIAM DARKER, JR., OF WEST PHILADELPHIA;PENNSYLVANIA.

VIBRATORY STEAM-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent 1\T o. 15,371, dated July 22, 1856.

To all whom it may concern.:

Be it known t-hat I, WILLIAM DARKER, J r., of lVest Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphiar and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Form of Steam-Engine; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a side elevation of the engine, with one side of the steam box removed, to show the interior. Fig. 2, is a vertical section of the same in a plane passing through the axis.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

A, is what I term, an oscillating piston, consisting of a metal roller of the form of a cylinder which has a cavity a, a', extend: ing from end to end and from the periphery nearly to the center, said cavity being of sector shape and being equal to not less than one fourth of the cylinder. This piston may be solid or hollow, but, if hollow, must be entirely closed up; it has` its peripherical surface turned up truly and its ends faced up square with the axis, and has the bottom Z9, of the cavity a, a faced concent-rically to the axis. Thepiston, thus constructed, is provided, at its ends, with journals c, c', which are received in proper bearings in the parallel ends al, cZ, of a closed square box B, which I term the steam box. This steam box may be, in its section taken perpendicularly to the axis of the oscillating piston A, either of quadrangular form as shown in Fig. 1, or may have an arched bottom to fitA nearly close t-o the peripherical of the oscillating piston. One or both of the ends al, cl', of the steam box, must lbe movable to allow the piston to be inserted. From the top of the steam box a fixed partition e, extends downward far enough to meet the bottom b, of the cavity a, a. The bottom face of the partition e, is grooved, to receive a packing, f, of leather, hemp, metal or other material, which is intended to fit closely to the face b, so as to prevent steam or water passing from the face a, to the face a, of the cavity in the piston, which form the faces of the piston. The ends d, el', of the steam box, are each grooved to receive one of two packing pieces g, g, of metal or other material, which are formed as shown in Fig. l, with rings to lit around the oscillating piston and extend down to the bottom of the steam box; the said packing pieces fitting close to the parallel ends of the oscillating. piston, as shown in Fig. 2. The bottom of the steam box is grooved straight across to receive a straight strip L, of metallic or other packing which lits to the peripherical surface of the piston. By means of the several packing pieces, which should all be backed with springs or elastic material, to keep them in contact with the piston, the division of the steam box into two steam tight chambers C C', is eected, and leakage around the journals is prevented. The two steam chambers are intended to be fitted with water to a level above the packing f, as for inst-ance, to j, j, Fig. 1, and each chamber is furnished with a cock 7c, communicating with the boiler below the water line, and so governed by a float Z, as to open the cock when the water gets below the requisite level, but to close it when up to the proper level.

D, is a steam chest which is represented as being placed on the top Vof the steam box B, but which may be in any other position. This steam chest contains a slide valve like that commonly applied to a reciprocating steam engine of the common kind, with a similar arrangement of parts and passages, the two passages which generally communicate with the cylinder, communicating through pipes z', and z" with the steam chambers C and C, at or near the top of said chambers. By working this slide valve over the ports, steam is admitted to each chamber alternately and allowed to exhaust from the other one, and by its pressure on the faces a, and a, alternately, is caused to produce an oscillating movement of the piston, A. This oscillating motion is converted into a continuous rotary motion by providing the journals c, which protrude through the steam box, with an arm E, which connects by a connecting rod F with a crank I, on the main shaft G, of the engine, which is supported in bearings on standards H,H, which may be erected on top of the steam box, as shown, or on any other suitable foundation. This shaft may be provided with a fly-wheel K. The crank I must be proportionably shorter than the arm E, to allow the piston the requisite amount of motion to bring its faces a, a', as near as desirable to the partition e. The slide valve may be Worked by an eccentric J, connected With it by a rod m, or may derive its motion through any suitable arrangement of valve gear, from any convenient part of the engine.

This form of engine possesses the advantage over other forms in its eXtreme simplicity and cheapness of construction, While leakage of steam is very e'ectually provided against by interposing Water between the steam and all the Working parts of the engine. The Water also serves to lubricate the Working parts.

I will here remark that the cocks 7c, le, are only required to supply enough Water to make up for the Waste by evaporation.

I do not claim the interposition otwater between the steam and the Working parts of a steam engine. But

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The oscillating piston A, of the form substantially herein specied, arranged Within a steam boX B, Which is provided With a partition e, and With suitable packing, all substantially as herein described, and With a suitable arrangement of a valve or valves and passages, the Whole operating as herein set forth, in connection With suitable means of converting the oscillating movement of the piston into a continuous rotary motion.

WILLIAM DARKER, JR.

Witnesses:

JN0. W. SnX'roN, SHAH. HILL. 

